Callwave lets you listen as caller leaves voicemail

Cellphones are great because people can find you wherever you are. That’s great, I guess, as long as you want to be found by the person who is calling you. If you’re not sure you do, Callwave has a new service that will help you out. Their new mobile screening service lets you listen to the message that a person is leaving for you before you decide whether you want to talk to them.

The service, cleverly call CallWave for Cell Phone 2.0, replaces the voicemail service from your carrier. When a call goes to voicemail you get a call from Callwave which lets you listen to the message as it is recorded. You can either cut in and talk to the caller or ignore them and let them continue leaving a message. The service also lets you transfer a call to a landline for a better connection and get voicemail messages emailed to you as WAV files.

There is a free version of the service which is, and will remain, free. There are a couple of catches, though. Voice messages are limited to 1 minute and you can only talk for 20 minutes after you cut in on a call. If you want fewer limits you can pay $3.95 per month for the pro version. Messages can be 3 minutes and there are no time limits on cut in calls.